Electronics of nature's nano machines

November 23, 2012

(Phys.org)—A team from the Cardiff University's Schools of Biosciences and Physics and Astronomy have made a breakthrough in our understanding of proteins - the workhorse molecules of the cell and nature's very own nano machines.

The group has successfully detected electric current through a single molecule of a protein, measuring just 5 nanometres long.

Electric current is key in many natural processes including detection of light in the eye, photosynthesis and respiration.

The team showed that the protein could carry large currents, equivalent to a human hair carrying one amp. The team also discovered that current flow could be regulated in much the same way as transistors, the tiny devices driving computers and smartphones, work but on a smaller scale: the proteins are only a quarter of the size of current silicon based transistors.

To access this molecular information, the team has pioneered the use of synthetic biology with a technique called STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy) so that electrical current flowing through a protein can be measured right down to the single individual molecule.

Prior to this work, measurement of millions, if not billions of proteins was only possible, so losing crucial details of how an individual molecule functions.

Dr Jones, School of Biosciences, said: "If you step back and listen to the sound of a large crowd, this sound is an accumulation of many individual voices and conversations. What we have done is the molecular equivalent to listening to individual voices in the crowd.

"By marrying our knowledge and ability to manipulate proteins at the molecular level with advanced approaches developed in the School of Physics and Astronomy and DTU Denmark we can examine the individual complex molecules fundamental to all life. The transistor behavior is particularly interesting but in time, it may be possible to integrate proteins with electronic components."

Collaborators Dr Martin Elliott and Dr Emyr Macdonald, School of Physics and Astronomy added: "The highly conducting nature of this protein was a surprise and the result raises questions about the fundamental nature of electron transfer in proteins.

"This gives a new powerful tool for studying enzymes and other important biological molecules''.

Related Stories

A scientist at the University of Liverpool has helped to create the world's smallest transistor - by proving that a single molecule can power electric circuits
Dr Werner Hofer, from the University's Surface Science Research ...

A group of scientists has succeeded in creating the first transistor made from a single molecule. The team, which includes researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, ...

An interdisciplinary team from Columbia University that includes electrical engineers from Columbia's Engineering School, together with researchers from the University's departments of Physics and Chemistry, has figured ...

A disease-fighting protein in our teardrops has been tethered to a tiny transistor, enabling UC Irvine scientists to discover exactly how it destroys dangerous bacteria. The research could prove critical to long-term work ...

Photosynthesis allows plants to convert light into chemical energy. Utilizing this process to produce electrical energy is a research goal worldwide. Now a team of scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and the ...

Recommended for you

Scientists have been making nanoparticles for more than two decades in two-dimensional sheets, three-dimensional crystals and random clusters. But they have never been able to get a sheet of nanoparticles to curve or fold ...

Serendipity has as much a place in science as in love. That's what Northeastern physicists Swastik Kar and Srinivas Sridhar found during their four-year project to modify graphene, a stronger-than-steel infinitesimally thin ...

Graphene has been called a wonder material, capable of performing great and unusual material acrobatics. Boron nitride nanotubes are no slackers in the materials realm either, and can be engineered for physical and biological ...

(Phys.org)—Currently, all light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emit light of only one color, which is predefined during fabrication. So far, tuning the color of light produced by a single LED has never been realized, despite numerous ...

When it comes to installing solar cells, labor cost and the cost of the land to house them constitute the bulk of the expense. The solar cells—made often of silicon or cadmium telluride—rarely cost more than 20 percent ...

A team of researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University has passed a major milestone in molecular electronics with the creation of the world's highest-performance single-molecule diode. Working at Berkeley Lab's Molecular ...